VIOLENCE

Violence is "the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy." Less
conventional definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of
violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself,
another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood
of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation."
Internationally, violence resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.28 million people in 2013 up
from 1.13 million in 1990. Of the deaths in 2013, roughly 842,000 were attributed to self-harm
(suicide), 405,000 to interpersonal violence, and 31,000 to collective violence (war) and legal
intervention. In Africa, out of every 100,000 people, each year an estimated 60.9 die a violent
death. For each single death due to violence, there are dozens of hospitalizations, hundreds of
emergency department visits, and thousands of doctors' appointments. Furthermore, violence
often has lifelong consequences for physical and mental health and social functioning and can
slow economic and social development.
In 2013, assault by firearm was the leading cause of death due to interpersonal violence, with
180,000 such deaths estimated to have occurred. The same year, assault by sharp object resulted
in roughly 114,000 deaths, with a remaining 110,000 deaths from personal violence being
attributed to other causes.
Violence in many forms can be preventable. There is a strong relationship between levels of
violence and modifiable factors in a country such as an concentrated (regional) poverty, income
and gender inequality, the harmful use of alcohol, and the absence of safe, stable, and nurturing
relationships between children and parents. Strategies addressing the underlying causes of
violence can be relatively effective in preventing violence, although mental and 

Types
The World Health Organization divides violence into three broad categories:

 self-directed violence
 interpersonal violence
 collective violence
This initial categorization differentiates between violence a person inflicts upon himself or
herself, violence inflicted by another individual or by a small group of individuals, and violence
inflicted by larger groups such as states, organized political groups, militia groups and terrorist
organizations. These three broad categories are each divided further to reflect more specific types
of violence:

 physical
 sexual
 psychological
 emotional
Alternatively, violence can primarily be classified as either instrumental or reactive / hostile.
Self-directed violence
Self-directed violence is subdivided into suicidal behaviour and self-abuse. The former
includes suicidal thoughts, attempted suicides – also called para suicide or deliberate self-
injury in some countries – and completed suicides. Self-abuse, in contrast, includes acts such
as self-mutilation.
Collective violence
Collective violence is subdivided into structural violence and economic violence. Unlike the
other two broad categories, the subcategories of collective violence suggest possible motives for
violence committed by larger groups of individuals or by states. Collective violence that is
committed to advance a particular social agenda includes, for example, crimes of hate committed
by organized groups, terrorist acts and mob violence. Political violence includes war and related
violent conflicts, state violence and similar acts carried out by larger groups. Economic violence
includes attacks by larger groups motivated by economic gain – such as attacks carried out with
the purpose of disrupting economic activity, denying access to essential services, or creating
economic division and fragmentation. Clearly, acts committed by larger groups can have
multiple motives.
Warfare
War is a state of prolonged violent large-scale conflict involving two or more groups of people,
usually under the auspices of government. It is the most extreme form of collective violence.
War is fought as a means of resolving territorial and other conflicts, as war of aggression to
conquer territory or loot resources, in national self-defence or liberation, or to suppress attempts
of part of the nation to secede from it. There are also ideological, religious and revolutionary
wars.
Since the Industrial Revolution the lethality of modern warfare has grown. World War I
casualties were over 40 million and World War II casualties were over 70 million.
Interpersonal violence
Interpersonal violence is divided into two subcategories: Family and intimate partner violence –
that is, violence largely between family members and intimate partners, usually, though not
exclusively, taking place in the home. Community violence – violence between individuals who
are unrelated, and who may or may not know each other, generally taking place outside the
home. The former group includes forms of violence such as child abuse, intimate partner
violence and abuse of the elderly. The latter includes youth violence, random acts of
violence, rape or sexual assault by strangers, and violence in institutional settings such as
schools, workplaces, prisons and nursing homes. When interpersonal violence occurs in families,
its psychological consequences can affect parents, children, and their relationship in the short-
and long-terms.
Child maltreatment
Child maltreatment is the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age. It
includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual
abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other child exploitation, which results in actual or
potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a
relationship of responsibility, trust, or power. Exposure to intimate partner violence is also
sometimes included as a form of child maltreatment.
Youth violence
Following the World Health Organization, youth are defined as people between the ages of 10
and 29 years. Youth violence refers to violence occurring between youths, and includes acts that
range from bullying and physical fighting, through more severe sexual and physical assault to
homicide.
Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence refers to behaviour in an intimate relationship that causes physical,
sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological
abuse and controlling behaviours.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or
advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed against a person's sexuality using coercion, by
any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined
as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other
body part or object.
Elder maltreatment
Elder maltreatment is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any
relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older
person. This type of violence constitutes a violation of human rights and
includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional; financial and material abuse;
abandonment; neglect; and serious loss of dignity and respect.
Targeted violence
Several rare but painful episodes of assassination, attempted assassination and school
shootings at elementary, middle, high schools, as well as colleges and universities in the United
States, led to a considerable body of research on ascertainable behaviors of persons who have
planned or carried out such attacks. These studies (1995–2002) investigated what the authors
called "targeted violence," described the "path to violence" of those who planned or carried out
attacks and laid out suggestions for law enforcement and educators. A major point from these
research studies is that targeted violence does not just "come out of the blue".
Everyday violence
As an anthropological concept, "everyday violence" may refer to the incorporation of different
forms of violence (mainly political violence) into daily practices. Latin America and the
Caribbean, the region with the highest murder rate in the world, experienced more than 2.5
million murders between 2000 and 2017.